© 2004 Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine
Commentary
President, General Medical Council, 178 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5JE, UK; PBuckley@gmc-uk.org
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
As I write these words, in the immediate aftermath of Shipman’s apparent suicide, there continues to be considerable public interest in the case and debate about its legacy. Few would argue with Professor Baker’s thoughtful and balanced analysis that its significance goes much wider than the stark, shocking, wickedness of an individual doctor who was able to kill at least 215 of his patients before being detected.
Professor Baker wisely warns against the risk of over-reaction, pointing out that all the signs suggest that patients still trust their doctors, despite Shipman. He is right to argue that a general attitude of mistrust between doctors would be a sad, destructive development. My own view is that the ongoing implementation of robust clinical governance locally, improvements in the monitoring of the use of controlled drugs and reform of arrangements for death certification and the investigation of death by coroners should stop another
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
